1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of sailing and boating and more particularly to means for making fast a sailboat, a motor boat or any other kind of boat and ship by a simple and easy mooring operation in a mooring post.
For the purpose of the present specification the term xe2x80x9cmooring postxe2x80x9d indicates any means, such as a wood or concrete post, a column, etc., that is firmly affixed in the land or in a water body and that is capable of receiving the mooring device of the invention for making fast any kind of boat in the water, such as in a dock, pier, wharf and the like.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It is well known in the art of sailing, either in sail boats and/or motor boats, to provide several types of means for making fast the boat when arriving in the docks. One of those means for securing a boat in place is the well know mooring post generally consisting of a wood post that is affixed at the bottom of the river, lake, or any water body by thrusting or pricking, for example. A mooring post may also be affixed to the land, close to the water.
For mooring purposes a pier, wharf and/or dock is provided with a plurality of mooring posts forming a line along the coast and uniformly spaced apart from each other thus forming mooring spaces at each side of a mooring post. Therefore, a post is generally used for more than one boat, more particularly one boat at each side of the post, which boats are made fast by means of chains, ropes, or any other types of lines affixed to the post. The line, generally a rope, has a proximal end forming a lace around the post, the lace being closed by a knot and being loose enough to permit the lace to move up and down along the post.
The lines used for securing the boat in place to the post are generally provided with buoys for keeping the line accessible in the surface of water. When a moored boat is left loose to have the boat free for sailing purposes, the mooring line is untied from the boat and is dropped into the water or hanged in any part of the post, in a hook, for example.
Since each boat at the side of the post needs a line laced to the post as above described, it is quite common that the two lines, one for each boat, result entangled enough to make both laces gripping the post in a way that the same are prevented from freely moving along the post. Under these circumstances, it may be common for a crow of a boat arriving in a dock to spent a lot of time for recovering the line if the same was not hanging from the post and the distal end of the line is sunk into the water.
To make the thinks worse, if the tide is hide and the laces are gripped around the post at a place well down into the water, it may be difficult to have access to the line. In any case, if the laces are entangled and gripped around the post, the line length results shorter than it is convenient for the boat safety.
It would be therefore convenient to have a new mooring system for guaranteeing not only the easy access to the mooring line at the time of the mooring maneuvers but also to have the mooring line always freely moving along the post and floating at the water surface in all the several tides.
It is therefore one object of the present invention to provide a simple, efficient and cost effective device that may be mounted along a mooring post for retaining a mooring line, with the inventive device being capable of freely floating and moving along the post to be always accessible at the surface of the water for facilitating the mooring maneuvers.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a mooring device for mounting freely around a mooring post for making fast a boat, the device comprising a collar for mounting around the post in a manner that the collar can move up and down according to the tide along the post, with one stem connected to the collar and freely movable around the collar and a buoy in the stem for keeping the collar and stem floating in the water, the stem including a distal ring for connecting a line for making fast the boat.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a mooring device for use in a mooring post for making fast a boat, the device comprising a collar for mounting around the post, at least one stem having a proximal end connected to the collar and freely movable around at least part of the collar and a distal end having means for connecting a line for mooring the boat, and a buoy means in said stem for keeping the collar and stem floating in the water with the distal end of the stem available at a surface of the water.
The above and other objects, features and advantages of this invention will be better understood when taken in connection with the accompanying drawings and description.